Bar on attending rallies, distributing posters: Bail conditions set by Supreme Court on 5 Delhi Riots accused

While granting bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa ur Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Mohd Saleem Khan in the Delhi Riots larger conspiracy case, the Supreme Court on Monday imposed a slew of conditions including a bar on attending rallies and other public gatherings as well as restrictions on circulating any hand bills, posters, banners etc..Earlier today, bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam but granted bail to the five above mentioned accused.While most of the conditions imposed are standard bail conditions usually set by courts, two of the conditions seem unique. Those are the bars on attending any meetings or gatherings and on circulation of banners and posters in physical or electronic form..The following are the 12 bail conditions imposed by the Court: Each appellant (accused) must furnish a personal bond of ₹2 lakh with two local sureties of the same amount to the satisfaction of the trial court.The appellants shall remain within the National Capital Territory of Delhi and shall not leave its territorial limits without prior permission of the Trial Court.The appellants shall surrender their passports, if any, before the Trial Court. Where no passport exists, an affidavit to that effect shall be filed.Each appellant must provide their residential address, mobile number and email ID to the Investigating Officer and the trial court, and give at least seven days’ prior written intimation of any change.They must appear in person twice a week every Monday and Thursday between 10 am and 12 noon before the Station House Officer of the Crime Branch police station to mark attendance.The appellants are prohibited from directly or indirectly contacting, influencing, or intimidating any witness or person connected with the case.The appellants are barred from associating with any group or organisation connected with the subject matter of the FIR.The appellants shall not make or publish or disseminate any information, statement, article or post whether in print, electronic or social media, concerning the present case or its participants till conclusion of the trial.The appellants shall not participate in any programme or address or attend any gathering, rally or meeting, whether physically or virtually till conclusion of the trial.The appellants shall not circulate any post either in electronic form or physical form or circulate any hand bills, posters, banners, etc in any form whatsoever.The appellants must appear on every date of hearing and cooperate fully with the trial without causing delay.The appellants shall maintain peace and good behaviour throughout and in the event of any offence committed during the pendency of the trial, the prosecution would be at liberty to seek for revocation of the bail granted by filing such application before the Trial Court and in the event of such application being filed the Trial Court shall consider it on its own merits.Violation of any of these conditions will be a ground for the trial court to cancel their bail.The Court also directed the authorities to intimate all the immigration authorities in the country not to permit the accused who have been granted bail to exit from the country in any manner whatsoever, without express permission from the trial court..Supreme Court denies bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam; grants bail to five others in Delhi riots case.The Delhi riots occurred in February 2020 following clashes over the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). As per the Delhi Police, the riots caused the death of 53 persons and injured hundreds.The present case pertains to allegations that the accused had hatched a larger conspiracy to cause multiple riots. The FIR in this case was registered by a Special Cell of the Delhi Police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the UAPA.The seven accused moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's September 2 order denying them bail. The top court had issued notice to the Delhi Police in the matter on September 22.In response to the bail petitions, the Delhi Police filed an affidavit contending that there is irrefutable documentary and technical evidence pointing to a conspiracy for a "regime-change operation" and plans to incite nationwide riots on communal lines and kill non-Muslims.During the hearing of the matter on October 31, the riots accused told the Court that they did not make any calls for violence and were only exercising their right to peaceful protests against the CAA.Meanwhile, the Delhi Police argued that the six accused cannot seek parity with the three other accused who were granted bail earlier by the Delhi High Court.On November 18, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta argued on behalf of the Delhi Police that the riots were pre-planned and not spontaneous. He added that speeches made by the accused were made with the intent to divide society on communal lines.During the hearing of the case on November 20, the Delhi Police told the top court that the accused are anti-nationals who tried to overthrow the regime through violence.Similar arguments were made on November 21 as well, when the Police contended that the accused had tried to effect a regime change in India through riots like those which took place recently in Bangladesh and Nepal..Today, the Supreme Court stated that the bail petition of each accused has to be examined individually since the seven accused were not on equal footing as regards culpability. Prima facie finding that Khalid and Imam had played a more central role in the alleged conspiracy, the Court denied them bail while granting bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa ur Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Mohd Saleem Khan..[Read Judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.